we have our third major hurricane of the season... Katrina is now a very dangerous storm that's packing sustained winds of 115 mph... She is definitely not to be trifled with... She's stopped her WSW track and is now headed west... the experts at the weather channel expect her to turn north soon...

currently, N'awlins is right smack dab in the center of the landfall cone of uncertainty... methinks that there will be a lot of mojo being generated in that town tonight trying to get Katrina to go elsewhere...

They're talking about a 25 foot storm surge with huge wave action ON TOP of that... think about that... water as high as a 5 story building coming ashore... please please do NOT go down to the shores and watch this thing come ashore, you may not return...

Levee breached near the French Quarter and some levee breaching done by surge... some structural damage downtown but other than that not much news from N'Awlins...

IN Gulfport, MS, one of my fav weathermen, Jim Cantore was safely ensconced at an Armed Forces Retirement Home some 27 feet above sea level...

He was sending out live shots of the storm and then... the next frame we have of him... he's on the phone... their parking lot, which was also at 27 feet above sea level was UNDER 4 feet of water... all their rental cars were flooded but they managed to get the satellite truck out of the lot and onto even higher ground... latest from him is that the first floor of the retirement home is now flooded...

ACK!!!

They are now in preserve life mode and NOT broadcasting at all...

I heard that some roof panels on the superdome were lost, and had minor leaking... the power was off but the generators were on... lights only.... NO A/C...

and...

oil hit 70 bux a barrel...

Did y'all hear about the oil tanker that broke loose in Mobile Bay? It's NOW safely remoored thanks to heroic effort by three tugboat operators and their crews...

Thankfully, Katrina is now a Tropical Depression but... the destruction she has brought to the Gulf Coast is horrific, the videos of the damage are mind numbing... the bad news of course is that N'Awlins continues to flood... yes... the water is STILL rising and the authorities are not sure why... levee breaks perhaps... scary... very very scary...

Right now 80% of New Orleans is a lake...

They have declared martial law...

One newscaster compared it to a nuclear holocaust without the radiation...

Sad... so incredibly sad... but... there is one thing to be thankful for... Had katrina hit to the west of Nawlins instead of the east, she would have adversely impacted one of Louisiana's Nuclear Power Plants where they store their used fuel rods in outside ponds... can you imagine storm surge or flood waters ravaging those waste ponds?

I heard this morning that a policeman was shot last night in New orleans when he surprized a looter... So how long before the police start shooting looters?

look, mga... I'm just a tiger on a weather mission... I like watching the satellites and dispensing information and unlike you, I have a life and I do NOT post at night... IF you want to pitch in and help, do so... IF you want to piss me off, keep it up...

Here is a fascinating history of hurricanes and how they have changed the destinies of nations.

Hurricanes steer the course of history

By JOHN TIBBETTS, Special to The T&D

For more than 200 years, hurricanes were the Jokers of American history, wild cards deciding winners and losers among Europeans warring over crucial beachheads on the Atlantic coast. In the 16th and 17th centuries, severe storms sank colonial warships, destroyed early forts and affected the outcomes of important battles as France, England and Spain struggled for a foothold in North America.

If not for hurricanes, historians say, perhaps South Carolinians would speak French today instead of English. Or maybe Spain would've ruled Charleston for a time. Or Puritans might have settled in the South instead of along New England's coast.